


the wondrous child

by nigiyakapepper



Series: The Android Hiro Ventures [3]
Category: Danball Senki
Genre: Alternate Universe - Robots & Androids, Canon Compliant, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-12
Updated: 2013-01-12
Packaged: 2017-11-25 05:42:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/635695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nigiyakapepper/pseuds/nigiyakapepper
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Oozora Haruka has a dark secret. (Contains spoilers for Mizel's identity)</p>
            </blockquote>





	the wondrous child

The year is 2037 and everything is possible.

“Or so said your father,” Oozora Haruka says, smiling fondly. The laboratory is quiet save for the hum of machines and the peaceful tap-tapping of her fingers on computer keys. Her son is nearby. He is only a year old. Whether or not he is listening, she doesn’t know.

“Your father was a brilliant man,” Haruka continues. “A scary man. He conducted research in a field most men could only dream about.”

The Healthy Integrated Response Operating System, it was called. A program that learned. A program that was fully self-sustaining and, coupled with the best of evolutionary bio-engineering, could enable one to replicate and augment not only human intelligence but also perfect physical capabilities.

In the hands of good, the research would be key to breaking past all known human limitations. In the hands of evil, they held a deep and terrifying potential to destroy everything.

“Your father was killed because of his research,” says Haruka. “But not before finishing what he started.”

She looks at her son— _“I’ll make him look just like you. We’ll raise him together, our precious little boy.”_ —and absently strokes her belly that could never bear fruit.

“I can’t shut you down,” she says with tears welling in her eyes, making it hard to see through her coke-bottle glasses. “I can’t leave you either.”

She hastily wipes her tears and returns to the computer, typing with renewed vigor. “You’re going to be a good boy…”

_But I don’t think my heart can handle physically being with you. It will hurt too much._

And the laboratory is once more drowned in silence, save for the hum of machines, the tap-tapping of fingers on the keyboard and a furtive bubbling from inside a glass tank where a baby boy lay sleeping, suspended by electrodes and wires.

_I will watch over you, Hiro._

— - —

At some point in Haruka’s life, she becomes an eccentric mad scientist. When she is hired for Omega Dain, she doesn’t really care what they are up to, as long as she can do her research. Adam and Eve are the closest she could get to replicating her husband’s research, and for a long while they are her world, her children. When they call her their mother, she can never be happier.

And then she meets Hiro after over a decade of seeing him in pictures. He is a boy, a living, breathing, growing boy. A boy who thinks, feels, laughs, cries and even scolds her. A boy who has good friends, who understands what it is to care, to love, to be human.

She is scared of him. She is afraid to touch him.

But curiosity always gets the better of Haruka and she takes her son’s hand.

It is warm.

— - —

Mizel is someone they do not expect.

But Haruka knows, as the mysterious boy reveals the truth about himself during his infiltration of their HQ’s main computer, that this is what her husband was talking about. The terrifying potential of a bio-engineered human to be a weapon, a weapon of mass destruction.

Mizel’s program is far more advanced than anything she’s encountered before. His directive to destroy is unshakable, and he learns at a frightening pace.

“Don’t worry, mo-ther,” He sounds out each syllable at Haruka in mockery. “I will rid this Earth system of its flaws, and when I take over, it will be running at its highest performance.”

“Don’t says such selfish things!” Hiro yells. Ban and the others tense up, ready to attack. Mizel’s dispassionate gaze turns to him and his smooth face breaks in a terrible grin.

“I understand, Professor Oozora, that you have secrets you don’t want revealed?”

Color drains from Haruka’s face. The children turn to her in alarm and confusion.

“Give the boy to me and none of you will be harmed.”

“Mother?” Hiro begins to ask.

“NO!”  _I must protect him!_  Haruka thinks desperately and moves to shield her son from anything and everything despite knowing the futility of her flesh and bone.

A hacked wire comes loose and moves faster. It coils itself around Hiro’s arm and digs into his skin, drawing blood and feeding him data he never knew he was made out of. His eyes widen in shock before his entire body convulses, short circuits, and collapses.

There is yelling, panic over Hiro, anger and attempts to chase after Mizel, but he’s disappeared from the system, leaving thousands of corrupted files in his wake.

Haruka holds her son in her arms. Hiro’s eyes are wide open and unseeing. His breathing is ragged and he grips his mother’s arm tightly.

His system's firewalls are clashing with whatever corruption Mizel has fed him. He won’t last for long.

“Professor Oozora!” Professor Yamano yells. “What’s wrong? Is he hurt?”

“We’ve got to save him!” Haruka pleads with tears streaming down her face. “His data’s being overwritten!”

— - —

Tiny lights flicker behind Hiro’s closed eyelids. His mind feels slow and groggy. There are tiny voices in his head he’s never heard before. He blearily opens his eyes and sits up. His head feels heavy.

“Hiro…”

It is Ban’s voice. He turns to see them standing in a solemn line behind his mother, who was typing frantically away at a computer.

“Where…?”

“Are you okay?” Ran asks worriedly.

“I…I think I am. I don’t remember what happened.”

“Mizel attacked you,” his mother says stiffly.

It takes a while for Hiro to recall. “That’s right! Mizel! He’s a virus program! What did he do? How did I—”

“Don’t push yourself!” Ban says and moves to take a step forward but hesitates. There is a look on his face that Hiro can’t place. It was then notices the cables running into his back and the base of his neck.

A chill of confusion and dread spreads outwards from Hiro's chest. The voices in his head grow louder—noise, speaking an incomprehensible language he finds he can somehow understand.

The faces of his friends are anxious, worried, scared even.

(…of him?)

Hiro’s stomach drops.

He is the last to find out.

**end**

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was edited from its first version posted on [Tumblr](http://nigiyakapepper.tumblr.com/post/39293770464/im-made-a-thing-happy-new-years). Some of Mizel's dialogue was based on [this post](http://snuu.tumblr.com/post/38943278637).


End file.
